Glorious sound here: rich, warm and spacious. There is refined detail, too, partly the result of the conductor's care both with phrasing and the inner-relationships of the scoring and part-writing, and partly the superbly polished orchestral response, but it also reflects the felicity of producer, Erik Smith, and his balance engineer, Erdo Groot. The performances, however, lack something in sheer gusto (Der fliegende Hollander) and grip—the central section of Die Meistersinger Prelude is very relaxed within a reading that is essentially spacious.
The string playing at the opening of the Lohengrin Prelude is exquisite in its sustained pianissimo, but doesn't generate much tension: that arrives suddenly in an almost sudden burst of powerful excitement before the exultant climax. The Tristan Prelude and Liebestod have more adrenalin, but overall I find Karajan (or before him, Furtwangler) much more involving in this repertoire, although neither conductor ever received recording as sumptuously rich as this.'